Fabric with pigmented and dyeable yarns

ABSTRACT

A novel knitted or woven fabric manufactured using at least one solution dyed or pigmented yarn, preferably polypropylene, which will not accept any type dye normally used to dye knitted or woven fabrics, and at least one yarn that will accept at least one dye normally used to dye knitted or woven fabrics. The fabric with this combination of yarns is dyed, and only the last mentioned yarn accepts the dye. Novel and pleasing effects can be achieved.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based upon, and claims the priority of, provisionalapplication Ser. No. 60/683,881, filed May 24, 2005.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to knitted or woven fabrics manufactured for usepredominantly in the apparel and home furnishings industry.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

U.S. Pat. No. 6,716,511 to Bersted et al. clearly outlines the benefitsand drawbacks of polypropylene fibers and yarn. While the Bersted et aldisclosure is directed mostly toward the carpet industry, the featuresof polypropylene or poly-olefins are well described.

Poly-olefin yarns are well known and widely used. The poly-olefin yarnused most is polypropylene, but this invention encompasses all types ofpoly-olefin yarn or fibers and will use the term poly-olefin to describethe yarns and fibers.

The one major disadvantage of using poly-olefin yarn to try to create adyeable greige goods fabric is the fact that poly-olefin will not acceptany dye normally used to dye fabrics. When a knitted or woven fabric ismanufactured using poly-olefin yarn, usually only a pigmented orsolution-dyed poly-olefin yarn is used. This fact makes it impossible tocreate greige goods that can be dyed to a desirable shade. Since theyarn is pigment colored and will not accept any dye, the fabric must bemanufactured already having color. This fact greatly limits the varietyof styles and colors available to the designer. It is very desirable tomake a fabric that could be colored to any desirable shade after it waswoven or knitted. This would make one fabric style usable by many endusers without sacrificing the ability to create stylish colors.

Most knitted or woven fabrics are made using yarns that will acceptcolor applied at a conventional dye house. Cotton, polyester, nylon andrayon are the most commonly used yarns in apparel and home furnishingfabrics. Most fabrics are first made into greige goods and held at thedye house for last minute dyeing to customer's specifications. Thisgreatly reduces inventory requirements and enables the stylist to createpleasing seasonal styles to satisfy their customers from the greigeknitted or woven fabric held in inventory.

It is very desirable to create a dyeable greige fabric that can alsotake advantage of the attributes of poly-olefin or polypropylene. Sincepoly-olefin yarn has the lowest specific gravity of all synthetic yarnit can be used to make very desirable lightweight fabrics.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, this invention provides a greige knitted or woven fabriccontaining a least one end (i.e., one yarn) of a pigment orsolution-dyed yarn and at least one end of a dyeable yarn. It ispreferable to have more than one end of each yarn and one skilled in theart will see the benefits when a further explanation is provided.

The object is to create greige goods that can be dyed at anyconventional dye house but to use the pigmented yarn as a styling tool.The effect will create styled greige goods that can be dyed at the lastminute but will use the advantages of the pigmented yarn.

I have found that using a dark colored or black-pigmented poly-olefinyarn knitted or woven together with a dyeable yarn into a greige fabriccreates acceptable dark shades when the fabric is piece dyed or printedusing deep color dyes. The yarn that accepts dye is dyed and thepigmented yarn will not accept the dye. Poly-olefin yarn is preferred,but the same effect can be achieved by one skilled in the art using anypigmented yarn that would not accept dye in a normal dye bath.

I have found that a fabric using a light colored or white-pigmentedpoly-olefin yarn manufactured by weaving or knitting with a yarn thatwill accept color, will dye to pleasing pastel shades when subjected toa dye bath using light colored dyes. Poly-olefin yarn is preferred, butthe same effect can be achieved by one skilled in the art using anypigmented yarn that would not accept dye in a normal dye bath.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention provides the manufacturer of apparel or home furnishingswith a knitted or woven fabric that can be either solid-dyed orcross-dyed using conventional equipment into many desirable shades. Bothlight and dark shades are possible when fabric according to theinvention is dyed by one skilled in the art.

Fabrics can be manufactured using spun yarn or filament yarn and evencombinations of the two. Below are some examples of how to use thisinvention, but it will be understood that these serve merely asguideposts to one skilled in the art of making fabrics. One skilled inthe art would choose any pigmented yarn that will not accept a dye usingnormal dye bath or print techniques.

EXAMPLE 1

A 30″ tubular knitted fabric is manufactured using 32 ends of 150/72/1pigmented black polypropylene continuous filament yarn and 32 ends of150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuous filament yarn. The pigmented anddyeable yarns are knitted together and the result looks like a salt andpepper tweed 1×1 ribbed tubular knit fabric.

The tubular fabric is sent to a dye house. A dye bath is prepared in apressure dye jig using disperse black high-energy dye. The fabric issubjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dye temperature reaches 265 F.and the full dye cycle is run including an after clear and hydrophilicfinish.

The thus dyed fabric tube is a pleasing black shade that matches theshade of the pigmented poly-olefin. Only the polyester portion of thefabric, however, accepts the disperse black dye. The pigmentedpoly-olefin does not accept any dye. The result is a solid black coloredfabric. It is hardly noticeable that one yarn is poly olefin and one ispolyester.

The dyed fabric is opened on a slitter and is dried in a conventionaloven at 285 degrees F. It is stretched to a full 60″ width. The solidblack fabric is rolled, packaged and tagged and is ready for shipment tothe apparel customer. The fabric weighs 6 ounces per square yard and issuitable for slinky apparel wear but not limited to any particular use.

EXAMPLE 2

A 30″ tubular knitted fabric is manufactured using 32 ends of 150/72/1white-pigmented polypropylene continuous filament yarn and 32 ends of150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuous filament yarn. The tubular fabricis sent to a dye house. A dye bath is prepared in a pressure dye jigusing a disperse dye formula that will create a white color on thepolyester. The fabric is subjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dyetemperature reaches 265 degrees F., and the full dye cycle is runincluding an after clear and hydrophilic finish.

The dyed fabric tube has a pleasing white shade that matches the shadeof the pigmented poly-olefin. Only the polyester portion of the fabric,however, accepts the disperse white dye formula. The pigmentedpoly-olefin does not accept any dye. The result is a fabric that iscolored a solid white.

The dyed fabric is opened on a slitter and is dried in a conventionaloven at 285 degrees F. It is then stretched to a full 60″ width. Thesolid white fabric is rolled, packaged and tagged and is ready forshipment to the apparel customer. The fabric weighs 6 ounces per squareyard and is suitable slinky apparel wear but not limited to such use.One skilled in the art will be able to make many different type apparelgarments using this fabric.

EXAMPLE 3 Unique Stretch Fabric

A 30″ tubular 1×1 rib knitted fabric is manufactured using 32 ends of150/72/1 pigmented black polypropylene continuous filament yarn and 32ends of 150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuous filament yarn and 40/1(5%) elastomeric yarn such as spandex. The pigmented and dyeable yarnsare knitted together using the same set up as the knitted fabric inexample one. However, instead of a salt and pepper, even look, asurprising fabric results. The spandex causes the one of the yarns, inthis case the undyed yarn, to appear mostly on the back of the fabricand the other yarn, in this case the black-pigmented yarn, to appear onthe front.

The resulting tubular fabric is sent to a dye house. A dye bath isprepared in a pressure dye jig using disperse red high-energy dye. Thefabric is subjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dye temperaturereaches 265 degrees F., and the full dye cycle is run including an afterclear and hydrophilic finish. Surprisingly, the resultant fabric appearssolid red on one side and a pigmented rib, interspersed with red,appears on the other side. The fabric appears to be very sophisticatedand expensive.

The dyed tube is split on a slitter machine, and the fabric is stretchedto 60 inches in width and processed through a fabric-drying oven at 285degrees F. The fabric is gummed on the edges to avoid curling. Afterdrying, the fabric shrinks to 55 inches in width due to the spandex. Thefinished weight is 7.1 ounces per square yard. The fabric is suitablefor medium to better apparel. Also the fabric appears wrinkle resistantdue to the spandex. The two tone effect is very surprising and pleasing.One skilled in the art would know how to make many variations utilizingthis aspect of the invention.

EXAMPLE 4 Stripe Fabric

A 30″ tubular knitted fabric is manufactured using a stripe knittingmachine. 45 ends of 150/72/1 White-pigmented polypropylene continuousfilament yarn and 45 ends of 150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuousfilament yarn are set up on the knitting machine. A pigmented whitestripe is alternately knit with a dyeable polyester stripe. Thepigmented and dyeable yarns are knitted and the fabric looks like awhite stripe with an alternate white stripe. The pigmented whitepolypropylene is almost identical in shade to the dyeable whitepolyester.

The tubular fabric is sent to a dye house. A dye bath is prepared in apressure dye jig using disperse black high-energy dye. The fabric issubjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dye temperature reaches 265degrees F., and the full dye cycle is run including an after clear andhydrophilic finish. The thus dyed fabric tube has a pleasing black andlight gray stripe as only the polyester portion of the fabric acceptsthe full strength disperse high-energy black dye. The pigmentedpoly-olefin will accept only a slight tone of the black dye. Theresulting fabric is a striped fabric having black and light graystripes.

The dyed fabric is opened on a slitter and is dried in a conventionaloven at 285 degrees F. It is then stretched to a full 60″ width. Thesolid black and gray striped fabric is rolled, packaged and tagged andis ready for shipment to the apparel customer. The fabric weighs 6ounces per square yard and is suitable for active or sports wear but notlimited to this use. It should be understood that using this invention,one skilled in the art will vary the width of the stripe and dye anypleasing shade stripe on the polyester portion of the fabric. The whitepoly-olefin portion will pick up a pleasing very light tone of the dyeused to create the colored stripe.

EXAMPLE 5 Stripe Stretch Fabric

A fabric is knitted as above in Example 4. A 40-denier spandex yarn isplaced in the proper feeders to create a 5% addition of the spandex. Thespandex chosen is chlorine safe as the fabric has to be dyed into acolored stripe and be subjected to an after wash containing bleach. Onlythe polyester yarns dye to a black shade. The fabric is finished asabove for shipment to the customer. The stretch fabric is suitable foruse as active sports wear.

In the above examples I mention dyeing the polyester stripe to a blackshade but one skilled in the art would be able to make any color stripedesired by the customer.

EXAMPLE 6 Woven Fabric

A warp is made up of yarns spun to a 28/2 cc. There are 45 ends of yarnto the inch. The yarns in the warp alternate. One of the yarns is apigmented black yarn spun using 100% polypropylene and one yarn is a28/2 dyeable polyester. The warp is set up on a box-loom weavingmachine. Two fill yarns alternate between a 28/2 pigmented blackpolypropylene and a 28/2 dyeable polyester. A fabric is woven using 35picks per inch. The fabric looks like white with black stripes or lines.The resulting fabric is sent to the dye house where it is dyed using thepolyester dye method and high energy dyes. A tan dye combination is usedto dye the polyester portion of the fabric. The fabric is dyed scouredand finished in an oven at 285 degrees F. The fabric is a pleasingcross-dyed tan and black check tone and weighs 8 ounces per square yard.The fabric is suitable for apparel.

In this example, a tan dye was chosen but one skilled in the art coulduse various pigmented colors with dyeable yarns to create pleasingcolored fabrics. The fabrics are not shipped to the customer until theyare dyed to the customer's specifications. Also a variation on the abovewould be to feed a fill of spandex equal to 5% of the weight of thegoods. This would add a stretch feature to the fabric.

EXAMPLE 7 Printed Fabrics

Use Examples 1-5 to create greige goods having at least one end ofpigmented polypropylene knitted or woven with dyeable polyester. Thegreige cloth is sent to a printer to create printed fabrics. The printerwould use polyester dyes to dye that portion of the fabric which willaccept the dye. The printed fabric is scoured or washed leaving only thedyeable yarn printed, as the pigmented yarn will not accept any of theprint. One skilled in the art could substitute dyeable yarns of nylon,rayon, cotton or acetate instead of using polyester. The combinations ofpigmented and dyeable yarns would only be limited by the imagination ofone skilled in the art.

EXAMPLE 8 Multi-Tones

In yet another embodiment of the invention, pigmented polypropylene isknitted or woven with multiple ends of dyeable yarn that acceptdifferent dyes. Cotton will accept vat dye and polyester will acceptdisperse dye. By way of example, if successive dye baths contained a reddisperse dye, and a blue vat dye, a fabric manufactured with a pigmentedwhite polypropylene, a cotton yarn and a polyester yarn would be dyedred, white and blue.

One skilled in the art would know how to vary the pigmented colors andthe various yarns with different dye affinity to create many noveldyeable fabrics using this invention.

It should be understood, of course, that the several embodiments of theinvention herein described are representative only, as many variationsmay be made therein without departing from the clear teachings of thedisclosure. Accordingly, reference should be made to the followingappended claims in determining the full scope of the invention.

1. A greige knitted or woven fabric which comprises a) at least one endof a yarn of a first type, which is pigment-dyed or solution-dyed, andb) at least one end of a yarn of a second type, which is dyeable byconventional dyeing procedures.
 2. A fabric according to claim 1, inwhich a) the yarn of said first type is formed of a poly-olefin.
 3. Afabric according to claim 1, in which a) said yarns are spun yarns,filament yarns, or combinations thereof.
 4. A dyed fabric comprising thegreige fabric of claim 1, wherein a) the fabric is knitted or wovenfabric manufactured using a plurality of ends of pigmented yarns of saidfirst type and a plurality of ends of yarns of said second type dyed byconvention dyes.
 5. A dyed fabric according to claim 4, wherein a) saidfabric and said yarns of said second type are dyed a color contrastingwith the color of said pigmented yarns of said first type.
 6. A dyedfabric according to claim 5, in which a) said yarns of said second typeinclude a fractional portion of elastomeric yarns.
 7. A dyed fabricaccording to claim 6, in which a) the fabric and said yarns of saidsecond type comprise about 5% of elastomeric yarn and are predominantlyvisible on one side of the fabric.
 8. A dyed fabric according to claim4, wherein a) said fabric and said yarns of said second type are dyed acolor consistent with the color of said pigmented yarns of said firsttype.
 9. A dyed fabric according to claim 4, wherein a) said fabric ismanufactured as a tubular knitted fabric.
 10. A fabric according toclaim 1, wherein a) said yarns of said second type are comprised of oneor more polyester, nylon, rayon, cotton or acetate yarns.
 11. A fabricaccording to claim 1, wherein a) the fabric is tubular knitted using astripe knitting machine, b) alternating stripe sections of said fabricare comprised alternately of yarns of said first type and yarns of saidsecond type.
 12. A fabric according to claim 11, wherein a) the greigefabric is dyed, whereby said yarns of said second type are dyed to acolor that may be consistent with or contrasting to the color of saidyarns of said first type.
 13. A woven fabric according to claim 1,wherein a) warp yarns of said fabric comprise yarns of said first typeinterspersed with yarns of said second type.
 14. A woven fabricaccording to claim 13, wherein a) fill yarns of said fabric compriseyarns of said first type interspersed with yarns of said second type.15. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein a) a printed pattern isapplied to a surface thereof, with a dye acceptable by said yarns ofsaid second type.
 16. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein a) saidyarns of said second type comprise a plurality of different yarns, eachdyeable with a dye of a different type, b) said fabric having beensubjected to a plurality of dyeing operations using dyes acceptabledifferentially by said different yarns, whereby said fabric has aplurality of at least two dyed colors.
 17. A fabric according to claim16, wherein a) said yarns of said first type are of a color differentfrom said at least two dyed colors.